Italy sits on two faultlines, making it one of the most seismically active countries in Europe.
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Firefighters carry the coffin of 9-year-old Giulia Rinaldo outside the gymnasium where the state funeral service for some of the victims of the natural disaster that hit central Italy last Wednesday took place, in Ascoli Piceno, Italy on Saturday.
Italy’s lobbying group for farmers, Coldiretti, said Monday that farm animals, a lot of them sheep and cows, also need warm shelters at night, since 90 percent of the stalls and barns in the Amatrice area have been damaged. “Above all, together we can give life back to our communities”, he said, speaking in front of a dusty crucifix that had been salvaged from one of dozens of churches devastated by the quake. People bid farewell to loved ones, kneeling, crying and placing their hands on flower-covered caskets.
Hundreds of locals gathered outside to mourn and show support.
People attend a funeral service for victims of the natural disaster, at a gymnasium arranged in a chapel of rest on August 27, 2016, in Ascoli Piceno, three days after a 6.2-magnitude quake struck the region killing some 281 people.
“It is a great tragedy. There are no words to describe it”, said town resident Gina Razzetti.
Mourner Raphaela Baiocchi told Eleanor that “we are participating, all our pain for our population”. He says he intends to mount a house-by-house investigation and is prepared to file criminal charges against anyone – even those who lost family members – if their renovations failed to observe anti-seismic regulations.
The Italian Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini said several churches and other medieval buildings that were destroyed when the 6.2 magnitude quake struck Amatrice would benefit. Rescue workers have noted that a person was pulled out alive 72 hours after the 2009 quake in the Italian town of L’Aquila.
Nobody has been found alive in the ruins since Wednesday and hopes have vanished of finding any more survivors.
Before Saturday’s mass funeral, the president visited Amatrice, which bore the brunt of destruction with 230 fatalities and a town turned to rubble and dust. There were 11 victims in nearby Accumoli and 50 in Arquata del Tronto, including a man who died in a hospital on Saturday, Italy’s civil defense agency said in a statement.
“That’s where the grocery stores, shops and restaurants were, and these little villages depended on it”, said Eduardo Nibi, 31, whose family has roots in the badly-damaged hamlet of San Lorenzo e Flaviano.
Mattarella started the day flying by helicopter to Amatrice, the town with the highest death count.
Mayor Sergio Pirozzi, warned that if new roads weren’t quickly cleared to bypass the damaged ones, Amatrice risked being cut off at a time it needs as many transport options as possible to bring emergency crews in and some of the 281 dead out.
Mattarella, during his visit to Amatrice, met and thanked rescue workers who have been working since early Wednesday to save people trapped in rubble and recover the dead, reported State TV Rai. The dead being honored at Ascoli Piceno came from Arquata del Tronto, another one of the towns devastated by Wednesday’s magnitued 6.2 quake. Renzi, as well as Italy’s president and other officials, attended that funeral.
Rescue workers believe Giulia’s instinctive decision to shield Giorgia saved the younger girl’s life, shielding her from falling masonry and creating an air pocket.
“Maybe they hugged each other in their sleep or in fear, and the body of Giulia saved Giorgia”, Caico told the newspaper.
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Nine more bodies were recovered from Amatrice on Saturday.
